ABC Interview

I'm not sure what it says about our country when a lot of our younger people get their political news from the Daily Show, and the most difficult questions yet asked of a candidate came from The View.

The most frustrating thing about ABC's interview of Sarah Palin is that they chopped it up and served it in edited segments. You never got to watch the whole thing uncensored from beginning to end. Groups that support Ms. Palin felt that it was a hit piece designed to make her look bad, and complain about how the Mainstream Media is a left-wing boogeyman. People more critical of Ms. Palin looked at her performance and tried to separate the rehearsed aspects of her answers from the views that she actually may have.

I've long felt that we really don't need professional politicians, that regular folk could do the jobs just as well. Now I'm rethinking that position and am wondering if you shouldn't be made to take a proficiency exam if you want to seek a political office. I shudder to think that I would have allowed stupid Texans that ignored an order to evacuate Hurricane Ike in office. Basic standards need to be met, so that the George Bushes, Sarah Palins, George Allens, and Rudy Gulianis of this world are kindly not allowed to waste our time.

One of the most telling things I heard, was when some women were interviewed about why they liked Sarah Palin. Well, she's a regular woman just like me, I identify with her, and it gives me hope that I could even be Vice President

Do you think that you are prepared and would make a good Vice President now? Well, no...

I want a politician who's smarter than I am, who spends all of their time studying the world political and economic situation. I want someone who can be a representative of all of the good things my country stands for, not someone who's so jingoistic that they will lead us into World War 111. Maybe I should spend more time listening to Bob Barr and Ron Paul?

Sarah Palin, Hurricane Ike

When asked by reporters where she got her answer to the Russia question, Gov. Palin replied, "My Magic 8-Ball got stuck on that one, so I asked God." Too bad it was her ego that answered...

OK, I was cruel to her in my last post. It's sad, really, watching this woman getting shredded for being so ignorant. What will happen to her and her family after losing the election, and she goes back to Alaska with a husband who's unemployed and five children, one of whom has Down's syndrome? And Alaska has lost all of their earmarks... Will Cindy McCain give her a Budweiser distributorship?

Ahh, but if she wins, I'll bet that Mr. Putin will test her mettle by invading Georgia and the Ukraine within the first 100 days. He's giggling and planning it now. Every despot in the world may be planning similar things and we will be pushed into WW111.

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My nephew works for American Medical Response out of Mobile, Alabama. Just like the local AMR here in Colorado Springs, they have made mistakes in almost every paycheck they have given him. They have lent him out to FEMA during the hurricane emergencies, and he's been sent out to Louisiana. They sent him on a truck that was out of commission, it was too old and mechanically unsound, that they claimed they had been saving for FEMA.

Every day that he has been sent out the ambulance has broken down. First, the clutch went out, then the electrical system burnt out and had to be replaced, and this morning the brakes went out. He's scared what might happen if he has a patient on life support and it breaks down again. Luckily, there have been military mechanics able to fix it, but it's embarrassing to have to wait for 5 hours to be towed when you are supposed to be providing emergency relief services.

He and his partner have a place with cots to sleep and a place to shower, but they haven't gotten a paycheck yet. AMR says that he is working for FEMA now, and FEMA says that they pay AMR to pay him. How can he pay his bills back at home or keep his car from being repo'ed? It won't be sorted out until long after Ike has passed, but this is no way to treat people whom you want to depend on. Only their compassion for others and the belief that they can help is keeping them there. And the worst is to come, with Ike due to make landfall soon.

George Bush's Sept 11 Speech

I know that I will sound like a conspiracy theory spouting wacko if I mention the Lizards, but every couple of sentences George Bush's tongue would flick out between his lips in a very reptilian way...

Sarah Palin gave her first solo interview today, and it was pretty much as I expected it would be: she is an idiot. She may be charismatic, but put together with John McCain, and you have a senile old man with an ignorant young woman, and we will lose all credibility on the world stage. Since you know that neither of them will be running the show, I wonder who will actually be making any major and important decisions in the Republican White House. 

On the Campaign Trail...

My sister is a Democrat, yet every morning, after I come home from taking kids to school, I find her watching the stump speeches of McCain and Palin. I notice that they are repeating the same speech each time, as if there were no cameras recording them. This includes Sarah's line about saying "no" to the Bridge to Nowhere after it was reported that she actually said "yes." I guess the speechwriters feel that it has better dramatic effect to leave it in.

If you watch the body language between Sarah and John, you see that he creeps her out, especially when they embrace. It may have something to do with how swollen the left side of his face has become, or maybe she just doesn't like him.

Plus, they are making an aggressive campaign stance by following Barack Obama from state to state, trying to steal his thunder. By promoting Ms. Palin up to celebrity status, keeping her away from any give and take with reporters, you drive the sharks into a feeding frenzy, and they will write reams and reams about their frustration. It deflects attention away from talking about items of substance and focuses on gossip. We, as a nation, are far more interested in the glitzy, glamorous, made-up lives of celebrities than the dirty, grubby, grabbing for political power. 

And if we can portray ourselves as rebels who can stand up to the corrupt establishment, take the pure ideals of plain folks who will magically transform the bad establishment, maybe you will believe the fiction. Maybe you won't notice that we are the establishment, and have been for the last 26 years. And if you don't believe us, we will change our message until we find something that you can believe in, and if I repeat lies about my opponent long enough and often enough, it takes on the patina of truth. Thank you, Mr. Rove.

Iraq and Afghanistan

Today President Bush recalled 8000 troops from Iraq, and sent some more to Afghanistan. Cynically, this is a move to take some of the wind out of the sails of the Democratic nominee, making this war less of a contention for debate.

I have yet to see a listing of the accomplishments we have achieved in these countries, the rebuilt infrastructure, schools and hospitals that we've promised to these people. The longer we are there, the more tired the population gets of our troops.

My analogy is what if there are Chinese troops and tanks taking over our country to free us from George Bush, and are marching along Academy Boulevard? Would we resent them? Co-operate with them? Form pockets of resistance, arming our friends and neighbors? Hide those resistors from the troops? A lot of what has happened in cities like Bagdad is a natural course of events when a country is occupied; it doesn't matter what the conflict has been.

The longer we are there, the more burnt out our troops become, having to be alert enough in life or death situations in 115 degree heat. The Army not letting you go home when your time is up, forcing you to enlist for another tour of duty or two or three until you lose the distinction between what is reality and what is the hell of this war. You have to deal with being poisoned by your own government, that uses depleted uranium in its bullets and bombs, and as reinforcement in the humvees you have to drive, leaving deformed children born in its wake. You never know if any man, woman, or child you see is carrying a bomb, or what you don't see buried alongside of every road.

And if you do come home, how do you deal with that pressure and the images of death and how do you end up channeling that energy? Unless you get therapy that is successful, you will direct it inwards and commit suicide, or direct it outwards and commit violence. These are statistics that are not added to the casualty lists and every politician and general should be held responsible.

There will never be a clear victory in these countries, nor probably in any other conflict that will be waged in the future. We haven't made any permanent friends in the region. I'd like to see Dick Cheney, George Bush, and that whole crowd tried for treason for the way they lied to the public to get us into Iraq in the first place, there are a whole bunch of books that make the case more eloquently than I can. But I will have to settle for however history ends up treating them...

Honesty in Politics?

Probably more people than ever before are following the elections this year, and all of the blogging on the Internet has played a large part. I want to thank all 5 of my readers...

Most of the mud throwing has been about the candidates spreading lies in their speeches, lies about their positions on issues in the past, lies about what their opponents did or did not do, lies about what their opponents are going to do if elected. 

Each time an election cycle starts, we hope that the candidates will be more honest and behave ethically towards their opponents; but every time it devolves into a dirty mess, and we feel soiled. We tout our country as the greatest proponent of democracy in the world, then let folks like the Bush administration make a mockery and fools of us all.

Barack Obama says its time to change Washington, and because the polls have shown that it resonates with the public, John McCain is suddenly trying to out-change him. The cynic in me says that neither will accomplish much change because the whole system needs a complete overhaul. Our society is still too racist and we are too disrespectful of our fellow man. In short, we are all too human.

I think the best way to conduct the presidential debates, and any time a politician talks to the public, is to hook them all up to lie detectors, with the results shown on the screen as they are speaking. It may not be an accurate measurement of how truthful one is, but it will make things more fun.

Before the Campaigns Heat Up...

Everything seems anti-climatic after the conventions. I have to share the television with grand-daughters again, watching episodes from Animal Planet and Total Drama Island... John McCain and Sarah Palin are campaigning here in Colorado Springs today. I forgot to call for tickets so I will sit this out, try and read some fiction set in Tibet and Mongolia.

As our emotions deflate, there comes post-convention depression and a return of cynical viewpoints. The political blogs are going crazy flinging mud and accusations at each other. There are a few things I find unsettling, unfortunately all coming from the Republican side.

1) What is that growth on the left side of John McCain's face? It has been getting larger over the past few months, and at the convention was covered by a piece of plastic and makeup. If its cancer, then the prognosis is not good for the Senator from Arizona. I haven't seen any major news outlet mentioning it, and my sister, who's a nurse, pointed it out to me. John has a history of skin cancer and it would be a shame if he waits until after the elections are over to get it treated. This also explains the weird, distracting choice of the photo of the middle school from North Hollywood for the background during his acceptance speech. The green expanse of grass simulated the green screen effect during close ups, and the color created a jarring note, distracted viewers from looking closely at his face. An example of smoke and mirrors...

2) One of the things I never liked about the Bush administration, has been the way they have tried to force public opinion. When describing a situation or point of view, they come up with a couple of pithy phrases that get repeated by loyal team players at every opportunity. The silliness of it has been repeatedly used for comedic purposes on the Daily Show with John Stewart. If you utter a phrase long enough will people believe its true? The worst one of these, of course, has been "weapons of mass destruction." 

This style of hit and run was used again during interviews at the Republican convention, set pieces of attack on Obama and defense pieces of Palin. It makes people like Carly Fiorino, Mitt Romney, and Rudy Guliani look like sheeple. I was hoping that this form of group think would not take place and is why I am pessimistic that John McCain will actually be able to change the Republican establishment in Washington, which he is a part of.

3) Sarah Palin is beginning by telling little white lies. Does it matter if her speech writers wrote them or she herself did? But she's saying that she didn't support the Bridge to Nowhere, that she sold the governor's plane on ebay and made a profit, or that she didn't support Alaska's embattled Senator Ted Stevens. 

These are all easily checked facts and her detractors are having a field day. It may be that she can't help herself; in order to make people like you, to embellish stories with what you think they want to hear. We all do it at one time in our life, usually in adolescence. But it may signify that she has no problems stretching the truth and is amoral by nature. We have had 8 years of the worst examples of this kind of behavior, and is the best reason that the Republican Party needs to be rebuilt from the ground up. It must stop and be changed now.