RAIN Minus 4
Item First – Let it RAIN: From now until the presidential Election Day we will begin each post with a review of the Remove All Incumbents Now (RAIN) campaign. A good rain washes clean all the road scum, dust and filth. We hope that a cleansing of Congress will result in the firing of the legislators who are part of the group that bailed out Wall Street with nearly a trillion dollars, at least 150 billion of which was blatant authorized pork by Democrats to appease Republicans who had previously rejected the bill then changed their vote allowing it to pass after being seduced by pork. We are not sure how much of the bailout, if any, was actually needed.
Four more days: Despite the fact that this election has given me a cause to write about I will be ecstatic to get it over with. Candidates have become celebrities. One toymaker has released a Joe Biden doll. It talks and talks and talks and won’t shut up. Alaska’s largest newspaper has endorsed Barack Obama but it didn’t bother Sarah Palin. She she didn’t see the endorsement because it is one of the papers she doesn’t read. John McCain proposed buying up bad homeowner mortgages. He just likes buying houses. The reason Senator Obama limited the number of town hall meetings was his preference is to give the Sermon on the Mount. There you have it A tweak on the nose of each candidate. Bill and Hill and W have been such good fodder for humorists but we must now search for topics for the new guys (no offense with the “guys” comment Sarah). I can hardly wait until next Wednesday to get back to doing more humor.
Another point of view: Back in the days when men were men an women were glad of it and you were easily able to tell one from the other, singer Perry Como had a spot on “Your Hit Parade.” His bit would start with, “Letters, we get letters, we get stacks and stacks of letters…” The song can be updated to emails. We often receive a couple of hundred per day. Some of which I share. The one below came to me recently from a former Doctoral student. It is not her original bit but describes her so well that she forwarded to me. It was originally penned by that great writer, Anonymous:
“I'm The One They're Talking About
With all the vitriol I've been hearing from the right-wingers of late, I can't help but recognize myself as the target of their vicious attacks. So I thought I'd take this opportunity to out myself, just so they know who it is they're spending so much time talking about.
Yes, I'm that American-hating broad who believes in life, liberty and equality for all Americans, not just those of a "socially acceptable" color, religion, address, pay scale or political affiliation.
I'm that leftie pro-choicer who thinks that every child should be a wanted child, and that the ultimate decision to give birth should be the difficult yet intensely personal decision of the woman whose body and life is involved. I also believe that people who really care about saving babies might want to think about the ones who are already born – especially the ones born in places our government is currently blowing off the map, or might plan to in future.
I'm that infamous anti-Christian who actually believes that I am my Brother's Keeper – and that includes supporting legal immigration and social safety-nets that provide food for the hungry, shelter for the homeless, care for the sick – you know, all that yadda-yadda stuff that Christ used to preach about back when people who called themselves Christians had a passing familiarity with his teachings. I also believe that just because Christ was tortured to death doesn't mean he was promoting the idea as something we are free to do to others with his approval.
I'm that unscrupulous libertine who has deluded myself into thinking that if the gay couple down the street get married, they're not going to destroy every heterosexual marriage in the neighborhood – and by the way, I've yet to hear a coherent argument as to how that would happen if they did.
I'm that unpatriotic wench who thinks that sporting a flag pin in your lapel doesn't mean squat if you're wearing it while supporting pay-cuts for the troops, or budget cuts to veterans' care, and more tax cuts for millionaires – or, for that matter, calling anyone and everyone who disagrees with you "unpatriotic" because you really have nothing of substance to say, but just love the sound of your own meaningless rhetoric blasted over the airwaves.
I'm that blatant sexist who thinks that if someone like Sarah Palin has nothing more to offer than being "hot" while seeking the office of the vice presidency, she'd better have something more in her training bra than a wad of Kleenex – like actual knowledge of the responsibilities of the job, for starters.
I'm that socialist leftie who thinks people should reap the financial rewards of their own hard work while the CEOs of the corporations they toil for share the resulting profits, rather than pocket them all while throwing crumbs to those whose labor created those profits in the first place. Yup, that's me - another anti-capitalist, spouting my big mouth off when oil companies earning record profits get tax subsidies, as though they don't deserve them.
I'm that big city chick, who couldn't possibly share the same values of Joe the Plumber, or the midwestern farmer, or the small-town librarian - or anyone who, unlike me, was raised in the right pocket of Americana - wherever that may be.
I'm that no-good Bush-basher who had the gall to notice that an idiot who couldn't string two words together without getting both of them wrong would inevitably lead this country into an unwinnable war (or two), financial ruin, complete moral failure, and global disgrace..
And while I'm at it, I may as well come completely clean – because, let's face it, you've got me dead-to-rights: I'm also a tree-huggin' environmentalist who believes in such outrageous ideas as protecting the environment, upholding the Constitution, equal treatment under the law, and civil rights – and the hypocrisy of people who call ME un-American makes me speechless (almost!) with fury.
So now that you know who I am, please feel free to vent about me all you want. I'm proud of who I am, what I believe in, and what I stand for.
But don't be embarrassed by not recognizing me in a crowd – you see, there are tens of millions like me, and you know what they say: All those liberal anti-Americans look alike. And we're all about to vote alike – which means voting your asses out of office.
And the next time you think about calling people like me anti-American, you might want to look back at what this election has been all about - and who the REAL Americans truly are."
A little blogging music Maestro… “I Am Woman, Hear Me Roar” by Helen Reddy.
Dr. Forgot
http://drforgot.com
Read me also at http://vegasnews.squarespace.com/dr-forgot-andrew-r-nixon/
Friday, October 31, 2008
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
6 Days to RAIN Day
RAIN Minus 6
Item First – Let it RAIN: From now until the presidential Election Day we will begin each post with a review of the Remove All Incumbents Now (RAIN) campaign. A good rain washes clean all the road scum, dust and filth. We hope that a cleansing of Congress will result in the firing of the legislators who are part of the group that bailed out Wall Street with nearly a trillion dollars, at least 150 billion of which was blatant authorized pork by Democrats to appease Republicans who had previously rejected the bill then changed their vote allowing it to pass after being seduced by pork. We are not sure how much of the bailout, if any, was actually needed.
On one hand: Six more days. If you have not early voted and do not plan to do so I strongly encourage you to vote for the presidential candidate of your choice Tuesday. The polls suggest one candidate has an edge over the other – most put Senator Obama ahead in most races – but some polls show the McCain ticket as neck and neck with Obama. Of course, states such as Utah will just mail it in for their candidate but others are struggling to choose. The news station pundits have taken sides with Fox (some say Fix) news claiming to be fair and balanced but in practice are neither. Note to Fox: Having one so called “liberal” partnered with a whining conservative does not make your coverage either fair or balanced. On the other end of the political spectrum NSNBC has loaded their guns with the likes of left-leaning show hosts but have made no effort to disguise them. The opposing view seems to have worked as ratings for the new nose-tweakers at MSNBC have challenged and even surpassed the old guard at Fox. So if both sides are blowing hot air, how does one get an unbiased view? News Flash: There is no unbiased view. Hence, we will further confuse you with two recently-received emails – one mocking the Democrats, the other praising the Democratic nominee. That’s as “fair and balanced” as we can get.
A Republican Children’s Story: There was a little red hen who scratched about the barnyard until she uncovered quite a few grains of wheat.
She called all of her neighbors together and said, 'If we plant this wheat, we shall have bread to eat. Who will help me plant it?'
'Not I,' said the cow.
'Not I,' said the duck.
'Not I,' said the pig.
'Not I,' said the goose.
'Then I will do it by myself,' said the little red hen, and so she did. The wheat
grew very tall and ripened into golden grain.
'Who will help me reap my wheat?' asked the little red hen.
'Not I,' said the duck.
'Out of my classification,' said the pig.
'I'd lose my seniority,' said the cow.
'I'd lose my unemployment compensation,' said the goose.
'Then I will do it by myself,' said the little red hen, and so she did.
At last it came time to bake the bread.
'Who will help me bake the bread?' asked the little red hen.
'That would be overtime for me,' said the cow.
'I'd lose my welfare benefits,' said the duck.
'I'm a dropout and never learned how,' said the pig.
'If I'm to be the only helper, that's discrimination,' said the goose.
'Then I will do it by myself,' said the little red hen.
She baked five loaves and held them up for all of her neighbors to see. They wanted some and, in fact, demanded a share. But the little red hen said, 'No, I shall eat all five loaves.'
'Excess profits!' cried the cow. (Nancy Pelosi)
'Capitalist leech!' screamed the duck. (Barbara Boxer)
'I demand equal rights!' yelled the goose. (Jesse Jackson)
The pig just grunted in disdain. (Ted Kennedy)
And they all painted 'Unfair!' picket signs and marched around and around the little red hen, shouting obscenities.
Then the farmer (Obama) came. He said to the little red hen, 'You must not be so greedy.'
'But I earned the bread,' said the little red hen.
'Exactly,' said Barack the farmer. 'That is what makes our free enterprise system so wonderful. Anyone in the barnyard can earn as much as he wants. But under our modern government regulations, the productive workers must divide the fruits of their labor with those who are lazy and idle.'
And they all lived happily ever after, including the little red hen, who smiled and clucked, 'I am grateful, for now I truly understand.'
But her neighbors became quite disappointed in her. She never again baked bread because she joined the 'party' and got her bread free. And all the Democrats smiled.
'Fairness' had been established.
Individual initiative had died, but nobody noticed; perhaps no one cared...so long as there was free bread that 'the rich' were paying for.
EPILOGUE
Bill Clinton is getting $12 million for his memoirs.
Hillary got $8 million for hers.
That's $20 million for the memories from two people, who for eight years, repeatedly
testified, under oath, that they couldn't remember anything.
IS THIS A GREAT BARNYARD OR WHAT?
A View of the Democratic nominee: Author Frank Schaeffer says "Obama will become one of the greatest (and most loved) American presidents."
Great presidents are made great by horrible circumstances combined with character, temperament and intelligence. Like firemen, cops, doctors or soldiers, presidents need a crisis to shine.
Obama is one of the most intelligent presidential aspirants to ever step forward in American history. The likes of his intellectual capabilities have not been surpassed in public life since the Founding Fathers put pen to paper. His personal character is also solid gold. Take heart, America: we have the leader for our times.
I say this as a white, former life-long Republican. I say this as the proud father of a Marine. I say this as just another American watching his pension evaporate along with the stock market! I speak as someone who knows it's time to forget party loyalty, ideology and pride and put the country first. I say this as someone happy to be called a fool for going out on a limb and declaring that, 1) Obama will win, and 2) he is going to be amongst the greatest of American presidents.
Obama is our last best chance. He's worth laying it all on the line for.
This is a man who in the age of greed took the high road of community service. This is the good father and husband. This is the humble servant. This is the patient teacher. This is the scholar statesman. This is the man of deep Christian faith.
Good stories about Obama abound; from his personal relationship with his Secret Service agents (he invites them into his home to watch sports, and shoots hoops with them) to the story about how, more than twenty years ago, while standing in the check-in line at an airport, Obama paid a $100 baggage surcharge for a stranger who was broke and stuck. (Obama was virtually penniless himself in those days.) Years later after he became a senator, that stranger recognized Obama's picture and wrote to him to thank him. She received a kindly note back from the senator. (The story only surfaced because the person, who lives in Norway, told a local newspaper after Obama ran for the presidency. The paper published a photograph of this lady proudly displaying Senator Obama's letter.)
Where many leaders are two-faced; publicly kindly but privately feared and/or hated by people closest to them, Obama is consistent in the way he treats people, consistently kind and personally humble. He lives by the code that those who lead must serve. He believes that. He lives it. He lived it long before he was in the public eye.
Obama puts service ahead of ideology. He also knows that to win politically you need to be tough. He can be. He has been. This is a man who does what works, rather than scoring ideological points. In other words he is the quintessential non-ideological pragmatic American. He will (thank God!) disappoint ideologues and purists of the left and the right.
Obama has a reservoir of personal physical courage that is unmatched in presidential history. Why unmatched? Because as the first black contender for the presidency who will win, Obama, and all the rest of us, know that he is in great physical danger from the seemingly unlimited reserve of unhinged racial hatred, and just plain unhinged ignorant hatred, that swirls in the bowels of our wounded and sinful country. By stepping forward to lead, Obama has literally put his life on the line for all of us in a way no white candidate ever has had to do. (And we all know how dangerous the presidency has been even for white presidents.)
Nice stories or even unparalleled courage isn't the only point. The greater point about Obama is that the midst of our worldwide financial meltdown, an expanding (and losing) war in Afghanistan, trying to extricate our country from a wrong and stupidly mistaken ruinously expensive war in Iraq, our mounting and crushing national debt, awaiting the next (and inevitable) al Qaeda attack on our homeland, watching our schools decline to Third World levels of incompetence, facing a general loss of confidence in the government that has been exacerbated by the Republicans doing all they can to undermine our government's capabilities and programs... President Obama will take on the leadership of our country at a make or break time of historic proportions. He faces not one but dozens of crisis, each big enough to define any presidency in better times.
As luck, fate or divine grace would have it (depending on one's personal theology) Obama is blessedly, dare I say uniquely, well-suited to our dire circumstances. Obama is a person with hands-on community service experience, deep connections to top economic advisers from the renowned University of Chicago where he taught law, and a middle-class background that gives him an abiding knowledgeable empathy with the rest of us. As the son of a single mother, who has worked his way up with merit and brains, recipient of top-notch academic scholarships, the peer-selected editor of the Harvard Law Review and, in three giant political steps to state office, national office and now the presidency, Obama clearly has the wit and drive to lead.
Obama is the sober voice of reason at a time of unreason. He is the fellow keeping his head while all around him are panicking. He is the healing presence at a time of national division and strife. He is also new enough to the political process so that he doesn't suffer from the terminally jaded cynicism, the seen-it-all-before syndrome afflicting most politicians in Washington. In that regard we Americans lucked out. It's as if having despaired of our political process we picked a name from the phone book to lead us and that person turned out to be a very man we needed.
Obama brings a healing and uplifting spiritual quality to our politics at the very time when our worst enemy is fear. For eight years we've been ruled by a stunted fear-filled mediocrity of a little liar who has expanded his power on the basis of creating fear in others. Fearless Obama is the cure. He speaks a litany of hope rather than a litany of terror.
As we have watched Obama respond in a quiet reasoned manner to crisis after crisis, in both the way he has responded after being attacked and lied about in the 2008 campaign season, to his reasoned response to our multiplying national crises, what we see is the spirit of a trusted family doctor with a great bedside manner. Obama is perfectly suited to hold our hand and lead us through some very tough times. The word panic is not in the Obama dictionary.
America is fighting its "Armageddon" in one fearful heart at a time. A brilliant leader with the mild manner of an old-time matter-of-fact country doctor soothing a frightened child is just what we need. The fact that our "doctor" is a black man leading a hitherto white-ruled nation out of the mess of its own making is all the sweeter and raises the Obama story to that of moral allegory.
Obama brings a moral clarity to his leadership reserved for those who have had to work for everything they've gotten and had to do twice as well as the person standing next to them because of the color of their skin. His experience of succeeding in spite of his color, social background and prejudice could have been embittering or one that fostered a spiritual rebirth of forgiveness and enlightenment. Obama radiates the calm inner peace of the spirit of forgiveness.
Speaking as a believing Christian I see the hand of a merciful God in Obama's candidacy. The biblical metaphors abound. The stone the builder rejected is become the cornerstone... the last shall be first... he that would gain his life must first lose it... the meek shall inherit the earth...
For my secular friends I'll allow that we may have just been extraordinarily lucky! Either way America wins.
Only a brilliant man, with the spirit of a preacher and the humble heart of a kindly family doctor can lead us now. We are afraid, out of ideas, and worst of all out of hope. Obama is the cure. And we Americans have it in us to rise to the occasion. We will. We're about to enter one of the most frightening periods of American history. Our country has rarely faced more uncertainty. This is the time for greatness. We have a great leader. We must be a great people backing him, fighting for him, sacrificing for a cause greater than ourselves.
A hundred years from now Obama's portrait will be placed next to that of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt. Long before that we'll be telling our children and grandchildren that we stepped out in faith and voted for a young black man who stood up and led our country back from the brink of an abyss. We'll tell them about the power of love, faith and hope. We'll tell them about the power of creativity combined with humility and intellectual brilliance. We'll tell them that President Obama gave us the gift of regaining our faith in our country. We'll tell them that we all stood up and pitched in and won the day. We'll tell them that President Obama restored our standing in the world. We'll tell them that by the time he left office our schools were on the mend, our economy booming, that we'd become a nation filled with green energy alternatives and were leading the world away from dependence on carbon-based destruction. We'll tell them that because of President Obama's example and leadership the integrity of the family was restored, divorce rates went down, more fathers took responsibility for their children, and abortion rates fell dramatically as women, families and children were cared for through compassionate social programs that worked. We'll tell them about how the gap closed between the middle class and the super rich, how we won health care for all, how crime rates fell, how bad wars were brought to an honorable conclusion. We'll tell them that when we were attacked again by al Qaeda, how reason prevailed and the response was smart, tough, measured and effective, and our civil rights were protected even in times of crisis...
We'll tell them that we were part of the inexplicably blessed miracle that happened to our country those many years ago in 2008 when a young black man was sent by God, fate or luck to save our country. We'll tell them that it's good to live in America where anything is possible. Yes we will.
Frank Schaeffer is the author of CRAZY FOR GOD-How I Grew Up As One Of The Elect, Helped Found The Religious Right, And Lived To Take All (Or Almost All) Of It Back.
A little blogging music Maestro… “Stand by Your Man” by Tammy Wynette.
Dr. Forgot
http://drforgot.com
Read me also at http://vegasnews.squarespace.com/dr-forgot-andrew-r-nixon/
Item First – Let it RAIN: From now until the presidential Election Day we will begin each post with a review of the Remove All Incumbents Now (RAIN) campaign. A good rain washes clean all the road scum, dust and filth. We hope that a cleansing of Congress will result in the firing of the legislators who are part of the group that bailed out Wall Street with nearly a trillion dollars, at least 150 billion of which was blatant authorized pork by Democrats to appease Republicans who had previously rejected the bill then changed their vote allowing it to pass after being seduced by pork. We are not sure how much of the bailout, if any, was actually needed.
On one hand: Six more days. If you have not early voted and do not plan to do so I strongly encourage you to vote for the presidential candidate of your choice Tuesday. The polls suggest one candidate has an edge over the other – most put Senator Obama ahead in most races – but some polls show the McCain ticket as neck and neck with Obama. Of course, states such as Utah will just mail it in for their candidate but others are struggling to choose. The news station pundits have taken sides with Fox (some say Fix) news claiming to be fair and balanced but in practice are neither. Note to Fox: Having one so called “liberal” partnered with a whining conservative does not make your coverage either fair or balanced. On the other end of the political spectrum NSNBC has loaded their guns with the likes of left-leaning show hosts but have made no effort to disguise them. The opposing view seems to have worked as ratings for the new nose-tweakers at MSNBC have challenged and even surpassed the old guard at Fox. So if both sides are blowing hot air, how does one get an unbiased view? News Flash: There is no unbiased view. Hence, we will further confuse you with two recently-received emails – one mocking the Democrats, the other praising the Democratic nominee. That’s as “fair and balanced” as we can get.
A Republican Children’s Story: There was a little red hen who scratched about the barnyard until she uncovered quite a few grains of wheat.
She called all of her neighbors together and said, 'If we plant this wheat, we shall have bread to eat. Who will help me plant it?'
'Not I,' said the cow.
'Not I,' said the duck.
'Not I,' said the pig.
'Not I,' said the goose.
'Then I will do it by myself,' said the little red hen, and so she did. The wheat
grew very tall and ripened into golden grain.
'Who will help me reap my wheat?' asked the little red hen.
'Not I,' said the duck.
'Out of my classification,' said the pig.
'I'd lose my seniority,' said the cow.
'I'd lose my unemployment compensation,' said the goose.
'Then I will do it by myself,' said the little red hen, and so she did.
At last it came time to bake the bread.
'Who will help me bake the bread?' asked the little red hen.
'That would be overtime for me,' said the cow.
'I'd lose my welfare benefits,' said the duck.
'I'm a dropout and never learned how,' said the pig.
'If I'm to be the only helper, that's discrimination,' said the goose.
'Then I will do it by myself,' said the little red hen.
She baked five loaves and held them up for all of her neighbors to see. They wanted some and, in fact, demanded a share. But the little red hen said, 'No, I shall eat all five loaves.'
'Excess profits!' cried the cow. (Nancy Pelosi)
'Capitalist leech!' screamed the duck. (Barbara Boxer)
'I demand equal rights!' yelled the goose. (Jesse Jackson)
The pig just grunted in disdain. (Ted Kennedy)
And they all painted 'Unfair!' picket signs and marched around and around the little red hen, shouting obscenities.
Then the farmer (Obama) came. He said to the little red hen, 'You must not be so greedy.'
'But I earned the bread,' said the little red hen.
'Exactly,' said Barack the farmer. 'That is what makes our free enterprise system so wonderful. Anyone in the barnyard can earn as much as he wants. But under our modern government regulations, the productive workers must divide the fruits of their labor with those who are lazy and idle.'
And they all lived happily ever after, including the little red hen, who smiled and clucked, 'I am grateful, for now I truly understand.'
But her neighbors became quite disappointed in her. She never again baked bread because she joined the 'party' and got her bread free. And all the Democrats smiled.
'Fairness' had been established.
Individual initiative had died, but nobody noticed; perhaps no one cared...so long as there was free bread that 'the rich' were paying for.
EPILOGUE
Bill Clinton is getting $12 million for his memoirs.
Hillary got $8 million for hers.
That's $20 million for the memories from two people, who for eight years, repeatedly
testified, under oath, that they couldn't remember anything.
IS THIS A GREAT BARNYARD OR WHAT?
A View of the Democratic nominee: Author Frank Schaeffer says "Obama will become one of the greatest (and most loved) American presidents."
Great presidents are made great by horrible circumstances combined with character, temperament and intelligence. Like firemen, cops, doctors or soldiers, presidents need a crisis to shine.
Obama is one of the most intelligent presidential aspirants to ever step forward in American history. The likes of his intellectual capabilities have not been surpassed in public life since the Founding Fathers put pen to paper. His personal character is also solid gold. Take heart, America: we have the leader for our times.
I say this as a white, former life-long Republican. I say this as the proud father of a Marine. I say this as just another American watching his pension evaporate along with the stock market! I speak as someone who knows it's time to forget party loyalty, ideology and pride and put the country first. I say this as someone happy to be called a fool for going out on a limb and declaring that, 1) Obama will win, and 2) he is going to be amongst the greatest of American presidents.
Obama is our last best chance. He's worth laying it all on the line for.
This is a man who in the age of greed took the high road of community service. This is the good father and husband. This is the humble servant. This is the patient teacher. This is the scholar statesman. This is the man of deep Christian faith.
Good stories about Obama abound; from his personal relationship with his Secret Service agents (he invites them into his home to watch sports, and shoots hoops with them) to the story about how, more than twenty years ago, while standing in the check-in line at an airport, Obama paid a $100 baggage surcharge for a stranger who was broke and stuck. (Obama was virtually penniless himself in those days.) Years later after he became a senator, that stranger recognized Obama's picture and wrote to him to thank him. She received a kindly note back from the senator. (The story only surfaced because the person, who lives in Norway, told a local newspaper after Obama ran for the presidency. The paper published a photograph of this lady proudly displaying Senator Obama's letter.)
Where many leaders are two-faced; publicly kindly but privately feared and/or hated by people closest to them, Obama is consistent in the way he treats people, consistently kind and personally humble. He lives by the code that those who lead must serve. He believes that. He lives it. He lived it long before he was in the public eye.
Obama puts service ahead of ideology. He also knows that to win politically you need to be tough. He can be. He has been. This is a man who does what works, rather than scoring ideological points. In other words he is the quintessential non-ideological pragmatic American. He will (thank God!) disappoint ideologues and purists of the left and the right.
Obama has a reservoir of personal physical courage that is unmatched in presidential history. Why unmatched? Because as the first black contender for the presidency who will win, Obama, and all the rest of us, know that he is in great physical danger from the seemingly unlimited reserve of unhinged racial hatred, and just plain unhinged ignorant hatred, that swirls in the bowels of our wounded and sinful country. By stepping forward to lead, Obama has literally put his life on the line for all of us in a way no white candidate ever has had to do. (And we all know how dangerous the presidency has been even for white presidents.)
Nice stories or even unparalleled courage isn't the only point. The greater point about Obama is that the midst of our worldwide financial meltdown, an expanding (and losing) war in Afghanistan, trying to extricate our country from a wrong and stupidly mistaken ruinously expensive war in Iraq, our mounting and crushing national debt, awaiting the next (and inevitable) al Qaeda attack on our homeland, watching our schools decline to Third World levels of incompetence, facing a general loss of confidence in the government that has been exacerbated by the Republicans doing all they can to undermine our government's capabilities and programs... President Obama will take on the leadership of our country at a make or break time of historic proportions. He faces not one but dozens of crisis, each big enough to define any presidency in better times.
As luck, fate or divine grace would have it (depending on one's personal theology) Obama is blessedly, dare I say uniquely, well-suited to our dire circumstances. Obama is a person with hands-on community service experience, deep connections to top economic advisers from the renowned University of Chicago where he taught law, and a middle-class background that gives him an abiding knowledgeable empathy with the rest of us. As the son of a single mother, who has worked his way up with merit and brains, recipient of top-notch academic scholarships, the peer-selected editor of the Harvard Law Review and, in three giant political steps to state office, national office and now the presidency, Obama clearly has the wit and drive to lead.
Obama is the sober voice of reason at a time of unreason. He is the fellow keeping his head while all around him are panicking. He is the healing presence at a time of national division and strife. He is also new enough to the political process so that he doesn't suffer from the terminally jaded cynicism, the seen-it-all-before syndrome afflicting most politicians in Washington. In that regard we Americans lucked out. It's as if having despaired of our political process we picked a name from the phone book to lead us and that person turned out to be a very man we needed.
Obama brings a healing and uplifting spiritual quality to our politics at the very time when our worst enemy is fear. For eight years we've been ruled by a stunted fear-filled mediocrity of a little liar who has expanded his power on the basis of creating fear in others. Fearless Obama is the cure. He speaks a litany of hope rather than a litany of terror.
As we have watched Obama respond in a quiet reasoned manner to crisis after crisis, in both the way he has responded after being attacked and lied about in the 2008 campaign season, to his reasoned response to our multiplying national crises, what we see is the spirit of a trusted family doctor with a great bedside manner. Obama is perfectly suited to hold our hand and lead us through some very tough times. The word panic is not in the Obama dictionary.
America is fighting its "Armageddon" in one fearful heart at a time. A brilliant leader with the mild manner of an old-time matter-of-fact country doctor soothing a frightened child is just what we need. The fact that our "doctor" is a black man leading a hitherto white-ruled nation out of the mess of its own making is all the sweeter and raises the Obama story to that of moral allegory.
Obama brings a moral clarity to his leadership reserved for those who have had to work for everything they've gotten and had to do twice as well as the person standing next to them because of the color of their skin. His experience of succeeding in spite of his color, social background and prejudice could have been embittering or one that fostered a spiritual rebirth of forgiveness and enlightenment. Obama radiates the calm inner peace of the spirit of forgiveness.
Speaking as a believing Christian I see the hand of a merciful God in Obama's candidacy. The biblical metaphors abound. The stone the builder rejected is become the cornerstone... the last shall be first... he that would gain his life must first lose it... the meek shall inherit the earth...
For my secular friends I'll allow that we may have just been extraordinarily lucky! Either way America wins.
Only a brilliant man, with the spirit of a preacher and the humble heart of a kindly family doctor can lead us now. We are afraid, out of ideas, and worst of all out of hope. Obama is the cure. And we Americans have it in us to rise to the occasion. We will. We're about to enter one of the most frightening periods of American history. Our country has rarely faced more uncertainty. This is the time for greatness. We have a great leader. We must be a great people backing him, fighting for him, sacrificing for a cause greater than ourselves.
A hundred years from now Obama's portrait will be placed next to that of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt. Long before that we'll be telling our children and grandchildren that we stepped out in faith and voted for a young black man who stood up and led our country back from the brink of an abyss. We'll tell them about the power of love, faith and hope. We'll tell them about the power of creativity combined with humility and intellectual brilliance. We'll tell them that President Obama gave us the gift of regaining our faith in our country. We'll tell them that we all stood up and pitched in and won the day. We'll tell them that President Obama restored our standing in the world. We'll tell them that by the time he left office our schools were on the mend, our economy booming, that we'd become a nation filled with green energy alternatives and were leading the world away from dependence on carbon-based destruction. We'll tell them that because of President Obama's example and leadership the integrity of the family was restored, divorce rates went down, more fathers took responsibility for their children, and abortion rates fell dramatically as women, families and children were cared for through compassionate social programs that worked. We'll tell them about how the gap closed between the middle class and the super rich, how we won health care for all, how crime rates fell, how bad wars were brought to an honorable conclusion. We'll tell them that when we were attacked again by al Qaeda, how reason prevailed and the response was smart, tough, measured and effective, and our civil rights were protected even in times of crisis...
We'll tell them that we were part of the inexplicably blessed miracle that happened to our country those many years ago in 2008 when a young black man was sent by God, fate or luck to save our country. We'll tell them that it's good to live in America where anything is possible. Yes we will.
Frank Schaeffer is the author of CRAZY FOR GOD-How I Grew Up As One Of The Elect, Helped Found The Religious Right, And Lived To Take All (Or Almost All) Of It Back.
A little blogging music Maestro… “Stand by Your Man” by Tammy Wynette.
Dr. Forgot
http://drforgot.com
Read me also at http://vegasnews.squarespace.com/dr-forgot-andrew-r-nixon/
Monday, October 27, 2008
8 Days to RAIN Day
RAIN Minus 8
Item First – Let it RAIN: From now until the presidential Election Day we will begin each post with a review of the Remove All Incumbents Now (RAIN) campaign. A good rain washes clean all the road scum, dust and filth. We hope that a cleansing of Congress will result in the firing of the legislators who are part of the group that bailed out Wall Street with nearly a trillion dollars, at least 150 billion of which was blatant authorized pork by Democrats to appease Republicans who had previously rejected the bill then changed their vote allowing it to pass after being seduced by pork. We are not sure how much of the bailout, if any, was actually needed.
To vote or not to vote… there is no question: One week from tomorrow. November 4, 2008, those of us who have not early voted will shuffle on to Buffalo or whatever city we live, and exercise our right as Americans. Of course, if we live in small towns or rural Virginia we’re better Americans than the rest of the country, so says one of the candidates. Another of the candidates hangs all the country’s problems on the current administration. And while the Bushies certainly have a litany of faux pas, bumbling and stumbling without humbling, there are some things that have happened on their watch that they did not directly cause. But the mystery of which candidate will lead us through the next four years; the old and tested or the young and restless, has been solved. Bobby Lewis once said, “I couldn’t sleep at all last night. I kicked my blanket on the floor, turned my pillow upside down. Got out of bed, turned on the light, pulled down the shade went to the kitchen for a bite. Rolled up the shade, turned off the light, got back into bed it was the middle of the night.” Last night it hit me. I know exactly who’s running, who will win the election and why.
Dinosaurs and Religious Wing Nuts: To the right, surrounding John McCain and Sarah Palin sit two constituencies; the dinosaurs and the religious right wing nuts. The dinosaurs see McCain as the last best whitest hope. He was a hero in Viet Nam, got shot down and became a prisoner of war. He is an old white guy who is surrounded by old white guy and a few old white gals in the congress – and oh yes, lightly sprinkled with a bit of diversity. His running mate is a conservative religious governor of a state with a population that is one-third the size of Las Vegas. She started out as the “Thrilla’ from Wasilla,” but has become to be seen by many in her party as “The Blunder from the Tundra.” Still she has plenty of pretty perky peppy appeal to a certain demographic and is able to fill an arena with raucous supporters and the curious. It has been reported that Senator McCain’s handlers have resorted to using campaign volunteers to fill empty chairs at some of his rallies. The party, some say, has been hijacked by far right zealots who like what they see in the Great Alaska Shout-out. The Republican ticket has attempted to paint the Democratic ticket as left-wing liberals, ironically using the “same old business as usual by dinosaurs” tack used on them with the citing of Nancy Pelosi Harry Reid, and Barney Frank as their whipping, uh, boys?
Novices: Support for the other side comes in large part from first time voters, diverse population groups, and leaping leaner lefties. The Democratic ticket started out with a “person of color” vs. a female in the primaries. When the “person of color” became the nominee he chose an old white guy as his running mate. As Senator Obama is fond of saying, “You can’t make this stuff up.”
As a young, energetic candidate to lead, the party clearly was at the opposite end of the continuum from the old white guy’s party. They had a much smaller constituency and had one or two big money backers as opposed to their opponent who had lots of longtime voters and plenty of cash. To make up for the difference the novices set in motion a strategy that historians and pundits will quote for generations. Rather than try to sway the vulnerable group that represents their opponent’s middle, they decided to create a new coalition of young first-time voters. The government campaign money was eschewed for small donations by new idealistic registrants. They went into areas of people who historically did not bother to register and vote – inner cities, barber and beauty shops, gymnasiums, spas, grocery stores, factories, college campuses and many other locations that diverse groups of historical non-voters hung out. The result was legions of new voters became novices whose views, for the most part could not be changed by the other side. They quickly figured that if each American gave a few dollars through the internet, they’d have much more money to spend than their opponents.
Code Words: Voters on the right (meaning Republican) fired up their base by reminding them of the dangers of voting for candidates from the left (meaning Democrats). They cited heroism in Viet Nam (young voters could not differentiate between the Viet Nam War and the Civil War). They accused their opponent of steering the country toward socialism (young voters think socialism means hanging out with their buds). They talked about diversity (code word to Dinosaurs for African American) and illegal immigrants (code word for Hispanics) and crime (code word for young, nonwhite, people without a college education). The problem for the Republicans is that code words solidified the Dinosaurs (their constituency) but meant little to Novices (code word for newly-registered voters). Hence, the election will be determined not by Palin’s wardrobe or Biden’s gaffes, or McCain’s anger or by Obama’s rallies, but by a simple matter of numbers – will more Dinosaurs or Novices vote? We’ll find out for sure next Tuesday but most polls suggest it will be the Novices.
More danger to hunters than gatherers: There is something so doggone romantic about killing one’s own supper. Perhaps it is the human DNA that takes us back to the time when a good club over the head of a helpless bunny or a spear in a dear would bring home the bacon, so to speak. But men of all shapes and sizes fight for the right to keep guns skip work to blow away Bambi for sport. It is a lot easier to stalk one’s prey in the aisles of a Kroger store and apparently less dangerous than to don the gear and shoot the breeze and an occasional buck. The biggest danger that some hunters face isn't getting eaten by a bear or hit by a stray bullet or falling out of a tree stand. It's heart disease. Three times more hunters die from the big one than from a hunting accident. So before heading into the woods with your 30-30 Winchester, camouflage gear, 25 extra pounds of beer belly, and your best Havana cigars, be sure to pack a cell phone to call for help. Oh yes, if despite of being in a drunken stupor you do bag that elk, lugging it to your car can also put undue strain on your heart.
A little blogging music Maestro… Anything by Guns ‘N Roses.
Dr. Forgot
http://drforgot.com
Read me also at http://vegasnews.squarespace.com/dr-forgot-andrew-r-nixon/
Item First – Let it RAIN: From now until the presidential Election Day we will begin each post with a review of the Remove All Incumbents Now (RAIN) campaign. A good rain washes clean all the road scum, dust and filth. We hope that a cleansing of Congress will result in the firing of the legislators who are part of the group that bailed out Wall Street with nearly a trillion dollars, at least 150 billion of which was blatant authorized pork by Democrats to appease Republicans who had previously rejected the bill then changed their vote allowing it to pass after being seduced by pork. We are not sure how much of the bailout, if any, was actually needed.
To vote or not to vote… there is no question: One week from tomorrow. November 4, 2008, those of us who have not early voted will shuffle on to Buffalo or whatever city we live, and exercise our right as Americans. Of course, if we live in small towns or rural Virginia we’re better Americans than the rest of the country, so says one of the candidates. Another of the candidates hangs all the country’s problems on the current administration. And while the Bushies certainly have a litany of faux pas, bumbling and stumbling without humbling, there are some things that have happened on their watch that they did not directly cause. But the mystery of which candidate will lead us through the next four years; the old and tested or the young and restless, has been solved. Bobby Lewis once said, “I couldn’t sleep at all last night. I kicked my blanket on the floor, turned my pillow upside down. Got out of bed, turned on the light, pulled down the shade went to the kitchen for a bite. Rolled up the shade, turned off the light, got back into bed it was the middle of the night.” Last night it hit me. I know exactly who’s running, who will win the election and why.
Dinosaurs and Religious Wing Nuts: To the right, surrounding John McCain and Sarah Palin sit two constituencies; the dinosaurs and the religious right wing nuts. The dinosaurs see McCain as the last best whitest hope. He was a hero in Viet Nam, got shot down and became a prisoner of war. He is an old white guy who is surrounded by old white guy and a few old white gals in the congress – and oh yes, lightly sprinkled with a bit of diversity. His running mate is a conservative religious governor of a state with a population that is one-third the size of Las Vegas. She started out as the “Thrilla’ from Wasilla,” but has become to be seen by many in her party as “The Blunder from the Tundra.” Still she has plenty of pretty perky peppy appeal to a certain demographic and is able to fill an arena with raucous supporters and the curious. It has been reported that Senator McCain’s handlers have resorted to using campaign volunteers to fill empty chairs at some of his rallies. The party, some say, has been hijacked by far right zealots who like what they see in the Great Alaska Shout-out. The Republican ticket has attempted to paint the Democratic ticket as left-wing liberals, ironically using the “same old business as usual by dinosaurs” tack used on them with the citing of Nancy Pelosi Harry Reid, and Barney Frank as their whipping, uh, boys?
Novices: Support for the other side comes in large part from first time voters, diverse population groups, and leaping leaner lefties. The Democratic ticket started out with a “person of color” vs. a female in the primaries. When the “person of color” became the nominee he chose an old white guy as his running mate. As Senator Obama is fond of saying, “You can’t make this stuff up.”
As a young, energetic candidate to lead, the party clearly was at the opposite end of the continuum from the old white guy’s party. They had a much smaller constituency and had one or two big money backers as opposed to their opponent who had lots of longtime voters and plenty of cash. To make up for the difference the novices set in motion a strategy that historians and pundits will quote for generations. Rather than try to sway the vulnerable group that represents their opponent’s middle, they decided to create a new coalition of young first-time voters. The government campaign money was eschewed for small donations by new idealistic registrants. They went into areas of people who historically did not bother to register and vote – inner cities, barber and beauty shops, gymnasiums, spas, grocery stores, factories, college campuses and many other locations that diverse groups of historical non-voters hung out. The result was legions of new voters became novices whose views, for the most part could not be changed by the other side. They quickly figured that if each American gave a few dollars through the internet, they’d have much more money to spend than their opponents.
Code Words: Voters on the right (meaning Republican) fired up their base by reminding them of the dangers of voting for candidates from the left (meaning Democrats). They cited heroism in Viet Nam (young voters could not differentiate between the Viet Nam War and the Civil War). They accused their opponent of steering the country toward socialism (young voters think socialism means hanging out with their buds). They talked about diversity (code word to Dinosaurs for African American) and illegal immigrants (code word for Hispanics) and crime (code word for young, nonwhite, people without a college education). The problem for the Republicans is that code words solidified the Dinosaurs (their constituency) but meant little to Novices (code word for newly-registered voters). Hence, the election will be determined not by Palin’s wardrobe or Biden’s gaffes, or McCain’s anger or by Obama’s rallies, but by a simple matter of numbers – will more Dinosaurs or Novices vote? We’ll find out for sure next Tuesday but most polls suggest it will be the Novices.
More danger to hunters than gatherers: There is something so doggone romantic about killing one’s own supper. Perhaps it is the human DNA that takes us back to the time when a good club over the head of a helpless bunny or a spear in a dear would bring home the bacon, so to speak. But men of all shapes and sizes fight for the right to keep guns skip work to blow away Bambi for sport. It is a lot easier to stalk one’s prey in the aisles of a Kroger store and apparently less dangerous than to don the gear and shoot the breeze and an occasional buck. The biggest danger that some hunters face isn't getting eaten by a bear or hit by a stray bullet or falling out of a tree stand. It's heart disease. Three times more hunters die from the big one than from a hunting accident. So before heading into the woods with your 30-30 Winchester, camouflage gear, 25 extra pounds of beer belly, and your best Havana cigars, be sure to pack a cell phone to call for help. Oh yes, if despite of being in a drunken stupor you do bag that elk, lugging it to your car can also put undue strain on your heart.
A little blogging music Maestro… Anything by Guns ‘N Roses.
Dr. Forgot
http://drforgot.com
Read me also at http://vegasnews.squarespace.com/dr-forgot-andrew-r-nixon/
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
12 Days to RAIN Day
RAIN Minus 12
Item First – Let it RAIN: From now until the presidential Election Day we will begin each post with a review of the Remove All Incumbents Now (RAIN) campaign. A good rain washes clean all the road scum, dust and filth. We hope that a cleansing of Congress will result in the firing of the legislators who are part of the group that bailed out Wall Street with nearly a trillion dollars, at least 150 billion of which was blatant authorized pork by Democrats to appease Republicans who had previously rejected the bill then changed their vote allowing it to pass after being seduced by pork. We are not sure how much of the bailout, if any, was actually needed.
Poor people myths: One of the barrages of emails going around states that one of the candidates will reduce taxes on “the 40% of the Americans who don’t pay taxes because they’re on welfare.” The hate email, typical of the garbage that has inundated our inbox for the past 18 months goes on to say that since the “welfare cases” do not pay taxes they will receive some sort of rebate checks. You know the group – the uninsured ones who do not pay their hospital bills and make waiting in the emergency room unbearable. Except that like most of the hate emails generated by the little gnome under a rock, the “facts” are wrong. A recent study by the Journal of the American Medical Association, hardly a left wing rag, debunks the emergency room myth. The uninsured DO NOT use emergency rooms for non-urgent care, they are NOT the leading cause of emergency room crowding, and they DO NOT use the emergency room in disproportionate numbers. In fact, a higher proportion of patients with Medicare and Medicaid use emergency rooms than the uninsured. But shucks and golly gee, those deadbeats must be doing somethin’ wrong.
Quotes from the Bard: We’ve gotten several requests lately to do something with Shakespeare quotes as we have done in the past. So we sent out our crack research team to find the candidates, their surrogates, the pundits, and anybody else associated with the election in order to see which quotes to assign to whom. Half the team disappeared at a Sarah Palin rally in Henderson, Nevada and the other half were picked up for loitering at a bar they insist was a rallying point for socialists. Therefore we’ll have to do the assignments the old fashioned way – make them up.
The email from Senator McCain to Colin Powell: “Et tu Brute?”
The Mitt Romney mantra: “Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow.”
On Hillary’s insistence that there are no hard feelings toward Obama: “The lady doth protest too much methinks.”
Bill Clinton at a concert: “If music be the food of love, play on.”
McCain trying to focus on one campaign theme: “To be or not to be, that is the question.”
All candidates after the long hard campaign: “To sleep, perchance to dream.”
Sarah Palin’s favorite trooper as she left Alaska: “Parting is such sweet sorrow.”
The loser after the election: “The winter of our discontent.”
Sarah Palin’s fashion consultant: All that glitters is not gold.”
Barack on the stump: “Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears.”
McCain describing Obama: “He hath a lean and hungry look about him.”
Karl Rove: “Done to death by a slanderous tongue.”
David Axelrod to Obama: Be not afraid of greatness.”
Sean Hannity: I follow him to serve him.”
Bill O’Reilly “O what fools these mortals be.”
Arianna Huffington: “O what men dare do!”
Rush Limbaugh: “What’s here? The portrait of a blinking idiot!”
Finally, Keith Olberman: “If this were play'd upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction.”
That’s enough culture for one day. We don’t want to be responsible for anybody getting a mental hernia.
Big lists from little ACORNs grow: The McCain camp has been surprisingly quiet about alleged ACORN voter registration fraud once similar fraud was discovered by California authorities. Seems the head of a group that earned up to $ 12 per Republican registration was busted for phony signups. The Republican team signed up voters by telling them they were signing a petition against child molesters, but the saps were actually registering as Republican voters. (Hello! Do you read what you sign? Would it be a good idea to do so?) ACORN targeted poor people and minorities, but some of their workers simply went to the library and copied names from newspapers and phone books. One such worker in Washington who pulled such shenanigans to make his quota was busted, convicted, and spent three months in prison for voter registration fraud. However a University of Washington law professor says the idea of fake cards turning into real votes is a myth. "There are no known instances of fictitious people actually voting," the prof said. "You look at some of the names: Mickey Mouse. Dr. Seuss. Mickey Mouse only votes in Disneyland. He's not going to show up at a critical precinct in West Virginia or North Carolina." So if we haven’t worn out the Bard, can we say the charges of “massive voter fraud” was Much Ado About Nothing?
From the penthouse to the outhouse - almost: Life is tough during these times. Mortgage rates are adjusting and payments are climbing. The cost of food, clothing, and shelter is at least going through the attic if not the roof. Savings accounts, 401Ks and any instrument that has been part of the stock market are lower than a snake’s behind. Some folks are running around like Chicken Little as the sky is falling, but others are becoming more austere in their daily living. For some that means only pearls, no diamonds, but for those without Wall Street golden parachutes reality is beginning to set in. Skip an occasional meal. Have macaroni and cheese instead of fine wine and brie cheese. Eat out less often. Cancel the porno channels on cable TV. Well, maybe not that. But at least one family has taken downsizing seriously. The Kastrinos who live in Calistoga, CA gave up their 1800 square foot house for a smaller one – much smaller. They've squeezed into a 154-square-foot home that looks like a kid's playhouse. They use a ladder to climb into their bed every night. The downstairs has a sitting area, tiny kitchen and bathroom in a space that's 98 square feet. The upstairs loft has a bed in 56 square feet of space. They keep extra clothes in their car. The house cost them $15,000, and the utilities are a mere $15 a month. They live on property owned by their daughter in California wine country, where the average home cost is $725,000. NOTE TO THE NEXT PRESIDENT: Fire Paulsen and Bernanke and hire the Kastrinos.
If not for bad luck, they’d have no luck at all: To say Louisiana has had a run of bad luck would be an understatement. Hurricane Katrina was followed by Hurricanes Rita, Humberto, Gustav and Ike. LSU had one of the top football teams in the country until they were Swamped by Florida. Politicians are indicted on a regular basis, boll weevils eat up the cotton crop, the shrimp industry has turned from prawns to popcorn, and their beauty queen got busted. Miss Teen Louisiana had 11 days to go to finish her reign. She was stripped of her sash and crown after inviting a couple of friends to lunch then runway walking out on the $ 46.07 bill. But she left her purse behind, complete with ID and two ounces of pot. Moral: if you’re a lass who carries grass don’t be crass with your repast or you might end up in a morass.
A little blogging music Maestro…” I Go Crazy” by Queen.
Dr. Forgot
http://drforgot.com
Read me also at http://vegasnews.squarespace.com/dr-forgot-andrew-r-nixon/
Item First – Let it RAIN: From now until the presidential Election Day we will begin each post with a review of the Remove All Incumbents Now (RAIN) campaign. A good rain washes clean all the road scum, dust and filth. We hope that a cleansing of Congress will result in the firing of the legislators who are part of the group that bailed out Wall Street with nearly a trillion dollars, at least 150 billion of which was blatant authorized pork by Democrats to appease Republicans who had previously rejected the bill then changed their vote allowing it to pass after being seduced by pork. We are not sure how much of the bailout, if any, was actually needed.
Poor people myths: One of the barrages of emails going around states that one of the candidates will reduce taxes on “the 40% of the Americans who don’t pay taxes because they’re on welfare.” The hate email, typical of the garbage that has inundated our inbox for the past 18 months goes on to say that since the “welfare cases” do not pay taxes they will receive some sort of rebate checks. You know the group – the uninsured ones who do not pay their hospital bills and make waiting in the emergency room unbearable. Except that like most of the hate emails generated by the little gnome under a rock, the “facts” are wrong. A recent study by the Journal of the American Medical Association, hardly a left wing rag, debunks the emergency room myth. The uninsured DO NOT use emergency rooms for non-urgent care, they are NOT the leading cause of emergency room crowding, and they DO NOT use the emergency room in disproportionate numbers. In fact, a higher proportion of patients with Medicare and Medicaid use emergency rooms than the uninsured. But shucks and golly gee, those deadbeats must be doing somethin’ wrong.
Quotes from the Bard: We’ve gotten several requests lately to do something with Shakespeare quotes as we have done in the past. So we sent out our crack research team to find the candidates, their surrogates, the pundits, and anybody else associated with the election in order to see which quotes to assign to whom. Half the team disappeared at a Sarah Palin rally in Henderson, Nevada and the other half were picked up for loitering at a bar they insist was a rallying point for socialists. Therefore we’ll have to do the assignments the old fashioned way – make them up.
The email from Senator McCain to Colin Powell: “Et tu Brute?”
The Mitt Romney mantra: “Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow.”
On Hillary’s insistence that there are no hard feelings toward Obama: “The lady doth protest too much methinks.”
Bill Clinton at a concert: “If music be the food of love, play on.”
McCain trying to focus on one campaign theme: “To be or not to be, that is the question.”
All candidates after the long hard campaign: “To sleep, perchance to dream.”
Sarah Palin’s favorite trooper as she left Alaska: “Parting is such sweet sorrow.”
The loser after the election: “The winter of our discontent.”
Sarah Palin’s fashion consultant: All that glitters is not gold.”
Barack on the stump: “Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears.”
McCain describing Obama: “He hath a lean and hungry look about him.”
Karl Rove: “Done to death by a slanderous tongue.”
David Axelrod to Obama: Be not afraid of greatness.”
Sean Hannity: I follow him to serve him.”
Bill O’Reilly “O what fools these mortals be.”
Arianna Huffington: “O what men dare do!”
Rush Limbaugh: “What’s here? The portrait of a blinking idiot!”
Finally, Keith Olberman: “If this were play'd upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction.”
That’s enough culture for one day. We don’t want to be responsible for anybody getting a mental hernia.
Big lists from little ACORNs grow: The McCain camp has been surprisingly quiet about alleged ACORN voter registration fraud once similar fraud was discovered by California authorities. Seems the head of a group that earned up to $ 12 per Republican registration was busted for phony signups. The Republican team signed up voters by telling them they were signing a petition against child molesters, but the saps were actually registering as Republican voters. (Hello! Do you read what you sign? Would it be a good idea to do so?) ACORN targeted poor people and minorities, but some of their workers simply went to the library and copied names from newspapers and phone books. One such worker in Washington who pulled such shenanigans to make his quota was busted, convicted, and spent three months in prison for voter registration fraud. However a University of Washington law professor says the idea of fake cards turning into real votes is a myth. "There are no known instances of fictitious people actually voting," the prof said. "You look at some of the names: Mickey Mouse. Dr. Seuss. Mickey Mouse only votes in Disneyland. He's not going to show up at a critical precinct in West Virginia or North Carolina." So if we haven’t worn out the Bard, can we say the charges of “massive voter fraud” was Much Ado About Nothing?
From the penthouse to the outhouse - almost: Life is tough during these times. Mortgage rates are adjusting and payments are climbing. The cost of food, clothing, and shelter is at least going through the attic if not the roof. Savings accounts, 401Ks and any instrument that has been part of the stock market are lower than a snake’s behind. Some folks are running around like Chicken Little as the sky is falling, but others are becoming more austere in their daily living. For some that means only pearls, no diamonds, but for those without Wall Street golden parachutes reality is beginning to set in. Skip an occasional meal. Have macaroni and cheese instead of fine wine and brie cheese. Eat out less often. Cancel the porno channels on cable TV. Well, maybe not that. But at least one family has taken downsizing seriously. The Kastrinos who live in Calistoga, CA gave up their 1800 square foot house for a smaller one – much smaller. They've squeezed into a 154-square-foot home that looks like a kid's playhouse. They use a ladder to climb into their bed every night. The downstairs has a sitting area, tiny kitchen and bathroom in a space that's 98 square feet. The upstairs loft has a bed in 56 square feet of space. They keep extra clothes in their car. The house cost them $15,000, and the utilities are a mere $15 a month. They live on property owned by their daughter in California wine country, where the average home cost is $725,000. NOTE TO THE NEXT PRESIDENT: Fire Paulsen and Bernanke and hire the Kastrinos.
If not for bad luck, they’d have no luck at all: To say Louisiana has had a run of bad luck would be an understatement. Hurricane Katrina was followed by Hurricanes Rita, Humberto, Gustav and Ike. LSU had one of the top football teams in the country until they were Swamped by Florida. Politicians are indicted on a regular basis, boll weevils eat up the cotton crop, the shrimp industry has turned from prawns to popcorn, and their beauty queen got busted. Miss Teen Louisiana had 11 days to go to finish her reign. She was stripped of her sash and crown after inviting a couple of friends to lunch then runway walking out on the $ 46.07 bill. But she left her purse behind, complete with ID and two ounces of pot. Moral: if you’re a lass who carries grass don’t be crass with your repast or you might end up in a morass.
A little blogging music Maestro…” I Go Crazy” by Queen.
Dr. Forgot
http://drforgot.com
Read me also at http://vegasnews.squarespace.com/dr-forgot-andrew-r-nixon/
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
13 Days to E-Day
RAIN Minus 13
Item First – Let it RAIN: From now until the presidential Election Day we will begin each post with a review of the Remove All Incumbents Now (RAIN) campaign. A good rain washes clean all the road scum, dust and filth. We hope that a cleansing of Congress will result in the firing of the legislators who are part of the group that bailed out Wall Street with nearly a trillion dollars, at least 150 billion of which was blatant authorized pork by Democrats to appease Republicans who had previously rejected the bill then changed their vote allowing it to pass after being seduced by pork. We are not sure how much of the bailout, if any, was actually needed.
“You’re Trashing Palin” says a reader: We’ve received a few emails accusing us of trashing Veep candidate Sarah Palin. ORLANDO, Fla., Oct. 19 (UPI) -- Republican U.S. presidential nominee John McCain is being hammered by some within his own party and the conservative media for the way he has run his campaign. WASHINGTON, Sept. 28 (UPI) -- Some leading conservatives are being assailed by their peers for questioning Republican U.S. vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin's qualifications. A disjointed interview with CBS News last week and growing doubts about her grasp of important issues have led some conservative columnists, such as George Will and David Brooks, to criticize the judgment of GOP nominee Sen. John McCain of Arizona in tapping the Alaska governor as his running mate, The Los Angeles Times reported Sunday. Meanwhile, other conservative writers as such Kathleen Parker, a former Palin supporter, and Kathryn Jean Lopez, writing for the conservative National Review, are calling for Palin to step down as the GOP vice presidential nominee, Politico reported. Gov. Sarah Palin has billed Alaskan taxpayers for over 300 nights that she spent in her own home, charging her per diem allowance (put in place to cover certain expenses while she is traveling on state business). The Republican National Committee appears to have spent more than $150,000 to clothe and accessorize vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and her family since her surprise pick by John McCain in late August. According to financial disclosure records, the accessorizing began in early September and included bills from Saks Fifth Avenue in St. Louis and New York for a combined $49,425.74. Palin brought daughter Bristol along on a trip to New York. Plane tickets for $1,385.11 were billed to the state, and a room for four nights at the $707.29-per-night at the Essex House hotel, which overlooks Central Park. “Trashing a person is the process of making up lies or twisting the truth about them. Which of the above statements falls into that category?
“Voter Fraud” cries the McCain camp: For a week or so the cries of “Voter fraud” have arisen from one side of the political aisle. The whipping boy in the charges has been ACORN, a company that has registered voters for decades. Some ACORN voter registration drives have had problems, mostly centering on registration forms filled out with phony names. In almost all instances election authorities were alerted by ACORN managers who caught the problem but are required by law to submit every document they received. So the managers flag the suspicious ones, separate them, and follow the law. ACORN's efforts have been the subject of intense, continuous scrutiny for years. Despite such scrutiny, and even with ACORN flagging suspicious applications as required by state election rules, a few reports of bogus registrations still pop up. That happens when part time people are hired. Some may sign up “Mickey Mouse” or the entire Dallas Cowboy roster. But those folks never show up to vote so there is no “voter fraud” as alleged.
So all potential voter fraud has been eliminated: Well, not exactly. The owner of a firm that the California Republican Party hired to register tens of thousands of voters this year was arrested in Ontario over the weekend on suspicion of voter registration fraud. It is alleged that Mark Jacoby fraudulently registered himself to vote at a childhood California address where he no longer lives so he would appear to meet the legal requirement that all signature gatherers be eligible to vote in California. His firm, Young Political Majors, or YPM, collects petition signatures and registers voters in California and other states. Dozens of voters said they were duped into registering as Republicans by people employed by YPM. The voters said YPM workers tricked them by saying they were signing a petition to toughen penalties against child molesters. One would think the Democrats would be all over this story to counter the Acorn story that has been kept alive although it appears to be much ado about nothing. But that has not happened. However since the YPM story broke the McCain camp and the right wing nuts have been surprisingly quiet about ACORN
Smile, you’re on candid canvas: An age-old Washington tradition kicks into high gear toward the end of any administration: the painting of official portraits. President and Mrs. Bush invited President and Sen. Clinton to the White House for the unveiling of the Clintons' official portraits. That was when they were pals and when the president’s approval ratings were at the opposite end of where they are now. However, this little portrait perk isn't reserved for presidents, kings and potentates. Underlings in the Cabinet are also eligible. So what? According to The Washington Post, the cost of these portraits ranges from$7,500 to nearly $50,000. Who would charge the American taxpayers for such vanity? Donald Rumsfeld had the Rolls Royce of portraits charging the Pentagon $46,790. I guess Rummy was a difficult subject and perhaps it took several erasures. Or maybe the numbers were mixed up on the canvas. The Commerce Department is spending $35,000 on a portrait of Secretary Carlos Gutierrez; $25,000 for the former NASA administrator, $29,500 for the outgoing head of the EPA. It looks like it is not only the Wall Street mavens who are neglecting to kiss us first. One more reason to make it RAIN November 4.
If you are sick about now, wash your eyes out with this: Dogs work for all branches of the military and the Transportation Safety Administration. They’re trained to find explosive devices, drugs and land mines, about 2,500 of them. Like any soldier, sailor or marine in combat, military dogs suffer from war wounds and routine health issues. Dogs injured in a war zone get emergency medical treatment on the battlefield and are flown to Germany for care. If necessary, they'll fly on to San Antonio for more advanced treatment. A new veterinary hospital for four-legged military personnel opened Tuesday at Lackland Air Force Base, offering a long overdue facility that gives advanced medical treatment to combat-wounded dogs. Hail to the heroes regardless of race, creed, or species!
A little blogging music Maestro…” The Dogs of War,” by The Red Hot Chili
Peppers.
Dr. Forgot
http://drforgot.com
Read me also at http://vegasnews.squarespace.com/dr-forgot-andrew-r-nixon/
Item First – Let it RAIN: From now until the presidential Election Day we will begin each post with a review of the Remove All Incumbents Now (RAIN) campaign. A good rain washes clean all the road scum, dust and filth. We hope that a cleansing of Congress will result in the firing of the legislators who are part of the group that bailed out Wall Street with nearly a trillion dollars, at least 150 billion of which was blatant authorized pork by Democrats to appease Republicans who had previously rejected the bill then changed their vote allowing it to pass after being seduced by pork. We are not sure how much of the bailout, if any, was actually needed.
“You’re Trashing Palin” says a reader: We’ve received a few emails accusing us of trashing Veep candidate Sarah Palin. ORLANDO, Fla., Oct. 19 (UPI) -- Republican U.S. presidential nominee John McCain is being hammered by some within his own party and the conservative media for the way he has run his campaign. WASHINGTON, Sept. 28 (UPI) -- Some leading conservatives are being assailed by their peers for questioning Republican U.S. vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin's qualifications. A disjointed interview with CBS News last week and growing doubts about her grasp of important issues have led some conservative columnists, such as George Will and David Brooks, to criticize the judgment of GOP nominee Sen. John McCain of Arizona in tapping the Alaska governor as his running mate, The Los Angeles Times reported Sunday. Meanwhile, other conservative writers as such Kathleen Parker, a former Palin supporter, and Kathryn Jean Lopez, writing for the conservative National Review, are calling for Palin to step down as the GOP vice presidential nominee, Politico reported. Gov. Sarah Palin has billed Alaskan taxpayers for over 300 nights that she spent in her own home, charging her per diem allowance (put in place to cover certain expenses while she is traveling on state business). The Republican National Committee appears to have spent more than $150,000 to clothe and accessorize vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and her family since her surprise pick by John McCain in late August. According to financial disclosure records, the accessorizing began in early September and included bills from Saks Fifth Avenue in St. Louis and New York for a combined $49,425.74. Palin brought daughter Bristol along on a trip to New York. Plane tickets for $1,385.11 were billed to the state, and a room for four nights at the $707.29-per-night at the Essex House hotel, which overlooks Central Park. “Trashing a person is the process of making up lies or twisting the truth about them. Which of the above statements falls into that category?
“Voter Fraud” cries the McCain camp: For a week or so the cries of “Voter fraud” have arisen from one side of the political aisle. The whipping boy in the charges has been ACORN, a company that has registered voters for decades. Some ACORN voter registration drives have had problems, mostly centering on registration forms filled out with phony names. In almost all instances election authorities were alerted by ACORN managers who caught the problem but are required by law to submit every document they received. So the managers flag the suspicious ones, separate them, and follow the law. ACORN's efforts have been the subject of intense, continuous scrutiny for years. Despite such scrutiny, and even with ACORN flagging suspicious applications as required by state election rules, a few reports of bogus registrations still pop up. That happens when part time people are hired. Some may sign up “Mickey Mouse” or the entire Dallas Cowboy roster. But those folks never show up to vote so there is no “voter fraud” as alleged.
So all potential voter fraud has been eliminated: Well, not exactly. The owner of a firm that the California Republican Party hired to register tens of thousands of voters this year was arrested in Ontario over the weekend on suspicion of voter registration fraud. It is alleged that Mark Jacoby fraudulently registered himself to vote at a childhood California address where he no longer lives so he would appear to meet the legal requirement that all signature gatherers be eligible to vote in California. His firm, Young Political Majors, or YPM, collects petition signatures and registers voters in California and other states. Dozens of voters said they were duped into registering as Republicans by people employed by YPM. The voters said YPM workers tricked them by saying they were signing a petition to toughen penalties against child molesters. One would think the Democrats would be all over this story to counter the Acorn story that has been kept alive although it appears to be much ado about nothing. But that has not happened. However since the YPM story broke the McCain camp and the right wing nuts have been surprisingly quiet about ACORN
Smile, you’re on candid canvas: An age-old Washington tradition kicks into high gear toward the end of any administration: the painting of official portraits. President and Mrs. Bush invited President and Sen. Clinton to the White House for the unveiling of the Clintons' official portraits. That was when they were pals and when the president’s approval ratings were at the opposite end of where they are now. However, this little portrait perk isn't reserved for presidents, kings and potentates. Underlings in the Cabinet are also eligible. So what? According to The Washington Post, the cost of these portraits ranges from$7,500 to nearly $50,000. Who would charge the American taxpayers for such vanity? Donald Rumsfeld had the Rolls Royce of portraits charging the Pentagon $46,790. I guess Rummy was a difficult subject and perhaps it took several erasures. Or maybe the numbers were mixed up on the canvas. The Commerce Department is spending $35,000 on a portrait of Secretary Carlos Gutierrez; $25,000 for the former NASA administrator, $29,500 for the outgoing head of the EPA. It looks like it is not only the Wall Street mavens who are neglecting to kiss us first. One more reason to make it RAIN November 4.
If you are sick about now, wash your eyes out with this: Dogs work for all branches of the military and the Transportation Safety Administration. They’re trained to find explosive devices, drugs and land mines, about 2,500 of them. Like any soldier, sailor or marine in combat, military dogs suffer from war wounds and routine health issues. Dogs injured in a war zone get emergency medical treatment on the battlefield and are flown to Germany for care. If necessary, they'll fly on to San Antonio for more advanced treatment. A new veterinary hospital for four-legged military personnel opened Tuesday at Lackland Air Force Base, offering a long overdue facility that gives advanced medical treatment to combat-wounded dogs. Hail to the heroes regardless of race, creed, or species!
A little blogging music Maestro…” The Dogs of War,” by The Red Hot Chili
Peppers.
Dr. Forgot
http://drforgot.com
Read me also at http://vegasnews.squarespace.com/dr-forgot-andrew-r-nixon/
Monday, October 20, 2008
15 Days to RAIN Day
RAIN Minus 15
Item First – Let it RAIN: From now until the presidential Election Day we will begin each post with a review of the Remove All Incumbents Now (RAIN) campaign. A good rain washes clean all the road scum, dust and filth. We hope that a cleansing of Congress will result in the firing of the legislators who are part of the group that bailed out Wall Street with nearly a trillion dollars, at least 150 billion of which was blatant authorized pork by Democrats to appease Republicans who had previously rejected the bill then changed their vote allowing it to pass after being seduced by pork. We are not sure how much of the bailout, if any, was actually needed.
The following item was sent to me by a dear friend and former colleague, Dr. Jerry. It was written by a newsman and columnist of nearly 50 years. If you still doubt the need for the RAIN campaign, read on:
A New World: Once all the incumbents have been purged from the system and a new president has been elected will the sniping stop? Somehow I don’t think that Rush, BillO, Sean, and their ilk will allow the U.S. to be any less a Savage Nation. Olberman, Maddow and the like will continue to fill American Air with views to the counter. So how will the schism ever be healed? Short answer: It won’t. My favorite author, Anonymous, has taken a position that since Red and Blue states will not melt and become purple, the only other solution is to divorce one another. As in any divorce a settlement agreement must be reached. Lawyers for Anonymous have proposed a settlement to the divorce decree between Red and Blue states. It is as follows:
Dear Red States,
We're ticked off at the way you've treated California, and we've decided that due to our irreconcilable differences we have grounds for divorce so we’re leaving you.
Once the divorce is final we will start a new life (country), and we're taking the Blue children with us. The Red children were yours so you get to keep them. You may visit if you have a valid passport.
In case you don’t remember the names of our Blue children, they include Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and the entire Northeast.
We believe this divorce will be beneficial to the nation, and especially to our relatives in the new country of New California.
To summarize the child support settlement:
You get Texas, Oklahoma and all the slave states.
We get stem cell research and the best beaches.
We get Nancy Pelosi. You get Sarah Palin.
We get the Statue of Liberty. You get WalMart.
We get Intel and Microsoft. You get WorldCom.
We get Harvard. You get Ole' Miss.
We get 85 percent of The United States' venture capital and entrepreneurs. You get Alabama .
We get two-thirds of the tax revenue. You get to make the red states pay their fair share.
Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22 percent lower than the Christian Coalition's, we get a bunch of happy families. You get a bunch of single moms.
Please be aware that Nuevo California will be pro-choice and anti-war, and we're going to want all our citizens back from Iraq at once. If you need people to fight wars, draft your evangelicals.
We do wish you success in Iraq, and hope that the WMDs turn up, but we're not willing to spend our resources in Bush's Quagmire.
Contributions from the Blue States means we will have firm control of 80 percent of the country's fresh water, more than 90 percent of the pineapple and lettuce, 92 percent of the nation's fresh fruit, 95 percent of America's quality wines (you can serve French wines at your state dinners) 90 percent of all cheese, 90 percent of the high tech industry, most of the U.S. low-sulfur coal, all living redwoods, sequoias and condors, all the Ivy League and Seven Sister schools, plus Stanford, Cal Tech and MIT.
With the Red States, on the other hand, you will have 88 percent of all obese Americans (and their projected health care costs), 92 percent of all U.S. mosquitoes, nearly 100 percent of the tornadoes, 90 percent of the hurricanes, 99 percent of all Southern Baptists, virtually 100 percent of all televangelists, Rush Limbaugh, Bob Jones University, Clemson and the University of Georgia.
We get Hollywood and Yosemite, thank you very much.
Additionally, 38 percent of those in the Red states believe Jonah was actually swallowed by a whale, 62 percent believe life is sacred (unless we're discussing the death penalty or gun laws), 44 percent say that evolution is only a theory, 53 percent that Saddam was involved in 9/11 and 61 percent of you right wing nuts believe you are people with higher morals than we lefties.
Sincerely,
Blue States
Trouble in Paradise: As the campaigning winds down the differences and arguments heat up. Sometimes that even happens within one’s party. Joe Biden is as passionate as he can be on the trail but is able to come up with a few gaffes including the announcement that Hillary would have probably been a better pick. Not to be outdone, Sarah Palin recently told CBN’s David Brody that she supports a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, a proposal John McCain voted against. McCain and Palin disagree on a number of issues, including stem cell research, whether or not global warming is man-made, and drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve. Biden will release his medical records to the press which will include medical documents from 1988 when Biden suffered two brain aneurysms and a blood clot in his lung. However he is not now, nor ever has been pregnant. Joe the Plumber has replaced all other campaign surrogates as John McCain’s new best friend and Colin Powell has become Barack Obama’s new spiritual and military advisor. We can hardly wait until its over.
Seniority counts: Much has been made of John McCain’s age during the election, but he has nothing on Ann Nixon Cooper. She has been around since Roosevelt’s election. That’s TEDDY Roosevelt, not FDR. Ann is 106 years old. She will vote this and although she reached voting age before womens suffrage, she was banned from voting for many elections due not to her age but her race. When asked about her secret for long life Ms. Cooper smiled and replied, “I ain’t got time to die.”
A little blogging music Maestro…” Those Oldies but Goodies,” by the Little Caesar and the Romans.
Dr. Forgot
http://drforgot.com
Read me also at http://vegasnews.squarespace.com/dr-forgot-andrew-r-nixon/
Item First – Let it RAIN: From now until the presidential Election Day we will begin each post with a review of the Remove All Incumbents Now (RAIN) campaign. A good rain washes clean all the road scum, dust and filth. We hope that a cleansing of Congress will result in the firing of the legislators who are part of the group that bailed out Wall Street with nearly a trillion dollars, at least 150 billion of which was blatant authorized pork by Democrats to appease Republicans who had previously rejected the bill then changed their vote allowing it to pass after being seduced by pork. We are not sure how much of the bailout, if any, was actually needed.
The following item was sent to me by a dear friend and former colleague, Dr. Jerry. It was written by a newsman and columnist of nearly 50 years. If you still doubt the need for the RAIN campaign, read on:
A New World: Once all the incumbents have been purged from the system and a new president has been elected will the sniping stop? Somehow I don’t think that Rush, BillO, Sean, and their ilk will allow the U.S. to be any less a Savage Nation. Olberman, Maddow and the like will continue to fill American Air with views to the counter. So how will the schism ever be healed? Short answer: It won’t. My favorite author, Anonymous, has taken a position that since Red and Blue states will not melt and become purple, the only other solution is to divorce one another. As in any divorce a settlement agreement must be reached. Lawyers for Anonymous have proposed a settlement to the divorce decree between Red and Blue states. It is as follows:
Dear Red States,
We're ticked off at the way you've treated California, and we've decided that due to our irreconcilable differences we have grounds for divorce so we’re leaving you.
Once the divorce is final we will start a new life (country), and we're taking the Blue children with us. The Red children were yours so you get to keep them. You may visit if you have a valid passport.
In case you don’t remember the names of our Blue children, they include Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and the entire Northeast.
We believe this divorce will be beneficial to the nation, and especially to our relatives in the new country of New California.
To summarize the child support settlement:
You get Texas, Oklahoma and all the slave states.
We get stem cell research and the best beaches.
We get Nancy Pelosi. You get Sarah Palin.
We get the Statue of Liberty. You get WalMart.
We get Intel and Microsoft. You get WorldCom.
We get Harvard. You get Ole' Miss.
We get 85 percent of The United States' venture capital and entrepreneurs. You get Alabama .
We get two-thirds of the tax revenue. You get to make the red states pay their fair share.
Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22 percent lower than the Christian Coalition's, we get a bunch of happy families. You get a bunch of single moms.
Please be aware that Nuevo California will be pro-choice and anti-war, and we're going to want all our citizens back from Iraq at once. If you need people to fight wars, draft your evangelicals.
We do wish you success in Iraq, and hope that the WMDs turn up, but we're not willing to spend our resources in Bush's Quagmire.
Contributions from the Blue States means we will have firm control of 80 percent of the country's fresh water, more than 90 percent of the pineapple and lettuce, 92 percent of the nation's fresh fruit, 95 percent of America's quality wines (you can serve French wines at your state dinners) 90 percent of all cheese, 90 percent of the high tech industry, most of the U.S. low-sulfur coal, all living redwoods, sequoias and condors, all the Ivy League and Seven Sister schools, plus Stanford, Cal Tech and MIT.
With the Red States, on the other hand, you will have 88 percent of all obese Americans (and their projected health care costs), 92 percent of all U.S. mosquitoes, nearly 100 percent of the tornadoes, 90 percent of the hurricanes, 99 percent of all Southern Baptists, virtually 100 percent of all televangelists, Rush Limbaugh, Bob Jones University, Clemson and the University of Georgia.
We get Hollywood and Yosemite, thank you very much.
Additionally, 38 percent of those in the Red states believe Jonah was actually swallowed by a whale, 62 percent believe life is sacred (unless we're discussing the death penalty or gun laws), 44 percent say that evolution is only a theory, 53 percent that Saddam was involved in 9/11 and 61 percent of you right wing nuts believe you are people with higher morals than we lefties.
Sincerely,
Blue States
Trouble in Paradise: As the campaigning winds down the differences and arguments heat up. Sometimes that even happens within one’s party. Joe Biden is as passionate as he can be on the trail but is able to come up with a few gaffes including the announcement that Hillary would have probably been a better pick. Not to be outdone, Sarah Palin recently told CBN’s David Brody that she supports a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, a proposal John McCain voted against. McCain and Palin disagree on a number of issues, including stem cell research, whether or not global warming is man-made, and drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve. Biden will release his medical records to the press which will include medical documents from 1988 when Biden suffered two brain aneurysms and a blood clot in his lung. However he is not now, nor ever has been pregnant. Joe the Plumber has replaced all other campaign surrogates as John McCain’s new best friend and Colin Powell has become Barack Obama’s new spiritual and military advisor. We can hardly wait until its over.
Seniority counts: Much has been made of John McCain’s age during the election, but he has nothing on Ann Nixon Cooper. She has been around since Roosevelt’s election. That’s TEDDY Roosevelt, not FDR. Ann is 106 years old. She will vote this and although she reached voting age before womens suffrage, she was banned from voting for many elections due not to her age but her race. When asked about her secret for long life Ms. Cooper smiled and replied, “I ain’t got time to die.”
A little blogging music Maestro…” Those Oldies but Goodies,” by the Little Caesar and the Romans.
Dr. Forgot
http://drforgot.com
Read me also at http://vegasnews.squarespace.com/dr-forgot-andrew-r-nixon/
Friday, October 17, 2008
18 Days to E-Day
RAIN Minus 18
Item First – Let it RAIN: From now until the presidential Election Day we will begin each post with a review of the Remove All Incumbents Now (RAIN) campaign. A good rain washes clean all the road scum, dust and filth. We hope that a cleansing of Congress will result in the firing of the legislators who are part of the group that bailed out Wall Street with nearly a trillion dollars, at least 150 billion of which was blatant authorized pork by Democrats to appease Republicans who had previously rejected the bill then changed their vote allowing it to pass after being seduced by pork. We are not sure how much of the bailout, if any, was actually needed.
The following item was sent to me by a dear friend and former colleague, Dr. Jerry. It was written by a newsman and columnist of nearly 50 years. If you still doubt the need for the RAIN campaign, read on:
545 PEOPLE
By Charlie Reese (former Orlando Sentinel columnist)
“Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them. Have you ever wondered why, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, we still have deficits? Have you ever wondered why, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, we have inflation and high taxes? You and I don't propose a federal budget. The president does. You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does. You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does. You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does. You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.
One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one president, and nine Supreme Court justices; 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country. I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank. I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a president to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes. Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.
What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits. The president can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it. The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. Who is the speaker of the House? She is the leader of the majority party. She and fellow House members, not the president, can approve any budget they want. If the president vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.
It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million cannot replace 545 people who stand convicted - by present facts - of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist. If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair. If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red. If the Marines are in IRAQ, it's because they want them in IRAQ. If they do not receive social security but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it's because they want it that way.
There are no insoluble government problems. Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power. Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like "the economy," "inflation," or "politics" that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do. Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible. They and they alone, have the power. They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees.
We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess!”
Say it ain’t so, Joe: "Joe the Plumber" isn't really a plumber. As the result of the mention of his name more than two dozen times in the 90-minute presidential debates, and Senator McCain’s tongue in cheek remark that he has fired his entire staff and replaced them with Joe the Plumber, he reached instant stardom. An internet company began selling “Joe the Plumber” tee shirts, baseball caps, buttons, and yard signs. But it seems that Joe got the same amount of pre-star status vetting as did the VP candidate – little to none. Turns out Joe the Plumber is actually a guy named Sam – Samuel J. Wurzenbacher, an unlicensed and unregistered employee of a small plumbing and heating company in suburban Toledo, Ohio. Had the McCain handlers set up their opponent with Joe, uh, Sam? A senior adviser to the McCain campaign said it had been in contact with the plumber before the debate but it apparently failed to look carefully into his background before McCain made an unwitting celebrity of him. Before the debate was even finished, three local television stations had parked live satellite trucks outside his home and the networks were rushing to interview him. He was portrayed as an “ordinary Joe,” a proxy for working people and an ordinary American.
Biggest plumber’s leak since Watergate: “Every Joe” turned out to be a 34-year-old plumber's assistant – not a registered plumber but a registered Republican with a quick racist remark that Barack Obama "can tap dance - almost as good as Sammy Davis Jr." Setting his toiletries aside, Joe/Sam the non-registered plumber shook hands with Senator Obama and told him he wants to buy the business he works for which would increase his income and therefore his taxes, although it turns out that higher taxes aren’t his only problem. There is no record of him in the database of the Ohio Construction Industry Licensing Board, he is not registered to work as a plumber in Ohio, he had a lien against him by the Ohio Department of Taxation in January, 2007, for failing to pay $1,183 in property taxes. To add more egg to their faces, the business manager of the Toledo local of the United Association of Plumbers, Steamfitters & Service Mechanics issued a statement complaining Joe the Plumber hadn't even undergone apprenticeship training.
A little blogging music Maestro… The odie by the late Rick Nelson, ”Fools Rush In.”
Dr. Forgot
http://drforgot.com
Read me also at http://vegasnews.squarespace.com/dr-forgot-andrew-r-nixon/
Item First – Let it RAIN: From now until the presidential Election Day we will begin each post with a review of the Remove All Incumbents Now (RAIN) campaign. A good rain washes clean all the road scum, dust and filth. We hope that a cleansing of Congress will result in the firing of the legislators who are part of the group that bailed out Wall Street with nearly a trillion dollars, at least 150 billion of which was blatant authorized pork by Democrats to appease Republicans who had previously rejected the bill then changed their vote allowing it to pass after being seduced by pork. We are not sure how much of the bailout, if any, was actually needed.
The following item was sent to me by a dear friend and former colleague, Dr. Jerry. It was written by a newsman and columnist of nearly 50 years. If you still doubt the need for the RAIN campaign, read on:
545 PEOPLE
By Charlie Reese (former Orlando Sentinel columnist)
“Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them. Have you ever wondered why, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, we still have deficits? Have you ever wondered why, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, we have inflation and high taxes? You and I don't propose a federal budget. The president does. You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does. You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does. You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does. You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.
One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one president, and nine Supreme Court justices; 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country. I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank. I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a president to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes. Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.
What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits. The president can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it. The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. Who is the speaker of the House? She is the leader of the majority party. She and fellow House members, not the president, can approve any budget they want. If the president vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.
It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million cannot replace 545 people who stand convicted - by present facts - of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist. If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair. If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red. If the Marines are in IRAQ, it's because they want them in IRAQ. If they do not receive social security but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it's because they want it that way.
There are no insoluble government problems. Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power. Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like "the economy," "inflation," or "politics" that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do. Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible. They and they alone, have the power. They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees.
We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess!”
Say it ain’t so, Joe: "Joe the Plumber" isn't really a plumber. As the result of the mention of his name more than two dozen times in the 90-minute presidential debates, and Senator McCain’s tongue in cheek remark that he has fired his entire staff and replaced them with Joe the Plumber, he reached instant stardom. An internet company began selling “Joe the Plumber” tee shirts, baseball caps, buttons, and yard signs. But it seems that Joe got the same amount of pre-star status vetting as did the VP candidate – little to none. Turns out Joe the Plumber is actually a guy named Sam – Samuel J. Wurzenbacher, an unlicensed and unregistered employee of a small plumbing and heating company in suburban Toledo, Ohio. Had the McCain handlers set up their opponent with Joe, uh, Sam? A senior adviser to the McCain campaign said it had been in contact with the plumber before the debate but it apparently failed to look carefully into his background before McCain made an unwitting celebrity of him. Before the debate was even finished, three local television stations had parked live satellite trucks outside his home and the networks were rushing to interview him. He was portrayed as an “ordinary Joe,” a proxy for working people and an ordinary American.
Biggest plumber’s leak since Watergate: “Every Joe” turned out to be a 34-year-old plumber's assistant – not a registered plumber but a registered Republican with a quick racist remark that Barack Obama "can tap dance - almost as good as Sammy Davis Jr." Setting his toiletries aside, Joe/Sam the non-registered plumber shook hands with Senator Obama and told him he wants to buy the business he works for which would increase his income and therefore his taxes, although it turns out that higher taxes aren’t his only problem. There is no record of him in the database of the Ohio Construction Industry Licensing Board, he is not registered to work as a plumber in Ohio, he had a lien against him by the Ohio Department of Taxation in January, 2007, for failing to pay $1,183 in property taxes. To add more egg to their faces, the business manager of the Toledo local of the United Association of Plumbers, Steamfitters & Service Mechanics issued a statement complaining Joe the Plumber hadn't even undergone apprenticeship training.
A little blogging music Maestro… The odie by the late Rick Nelson, ”Fools Rush In.”
Dr. Forgot
http://drforgot.com
Read me also at http://vegasnews.squarespace.com/dr-forgot-andrew-r-nixon/
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